Tech Terms Sideload — The standard way to install an app on an iOS or Android device is to download it from Apple's App Store or Google's Play Store. Sideloading an app bypasses the app store, installing the app directly from a local device. ***Heads Up*** Yesterday, I responded to this essay in the New York Times. You can read it by clicking the “…

Tech Terms Transformer — A transformer is a deep learning model that adopts the mechanism of self-attention, differentially weighting the significance of each part of the input data. It is used primarily in the field of natural language processing (NLP) and in computer vision (CV). FBI Director is Trying to Make a Point What’s New: FBI Director Chr…

Hello friends, What’s New: In yesterday’s Briefing I discussed security concerns with China’s My2022 Olympics app. In this story, I cited research done by Citizen Lab and Jonathan Scott — both of whom claim My2022 has serious flaws. Mr. Scott’s claims were particularly alarming, stating, “All Olympian audio is being collected, analyzed and saved on…

Tech Terms Boot Sequence — The initial series of processes a computer runs when starting up. China’s Olympics App is Pure Spyware What’s New: Cybersecurity researchers say the My2022 mobile app — the official app of the Beijing Winter Olympics — has serious security vulnerabilities and that “all Olympian audio is being collected, analyzed and saved…

Tech Terms Elastic Computing — The capability of cloud services to decrease or expand computer storage, memory, and processing to handle fluctuating demand. Don’t be Fooled by Russia’s Ransomware Roundup What’s New: The Russian government has arrested several members of the REvil ransomware syndicate, the group responsible for last year’s attacks a…

Heads Up Bill Drexel and I have a new article arguing that the United States and Taiwan need unprecedented cooperation in order to secure the island from Chinese invasion and cyber attacks. “In the domain of Sino-American tech rivalry, Taiwan is unique in two aspects: First, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC) remains the worl…

David E. Sanger is a White House and national security correspondent, and a senior writer. In a 38-year reporting career for The New York Times, he has been on three teams that have won Pulitzer Prizes, most recently in 2017 for international reporting. His newest book, “The Perfect Weapon: War, Sabotage and Fear in the Cyber Age,’’ and an HBO docu…

Heads Up I sat down with AEI’s big boss, Robert Doar, to chat about tech, culture, & national security. He asks me about "big tech", fake media, and Chinese aggression. You can listen to our conversation here. Tech Terms Air Gap — The physical separation or isolation of a system from other systems or networks. Anticipating Russia’s Use of Cyber in …

This is the last Friday Brief for 2021 We’ll be back in 2022 and it’s gonna be great! In the meantime, I’ll be pushing out one or two more podcasts and — don’t forget — you can always gift a subscription to this newsletter for that certain someone special! Give a gift subscription Enjoy the holidays and happy New Year. Klon Tech Terms Firewall — Fi…

Yuval Levin is the director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). He also holds the Beth and Ravenel Curry Chair in Public Policy. The founding and current editor of National Affairs, he is also a senior editor of The New Atlantis and a contributing editor to National Review. Source: AEI Dr. Lev…

Tech Terms Cryptomining — the process of validating a cryptocurrency transaction. What I saw in California What’s New: I spent the last four days in Los Angeles and San Francisco, CA meeting with engineers, founders/executives, and venture capitalists to get their perspectives on all things tech and foreign policy. Why This Matters: I’m encouraged …

Tech Terms Web 3.0 — It’s complicated; but, you’re going to be hearing more about this and so here’s the best concise introduction I could find (5min 18sec). Heads Up This week I published an essay with The Hoover Institution/Lawfare Blog — The Business of Knowing: Private Market Data and Contemporary Intelligence (see the attached PDF below). Bott…

Among my many blessings, is you! Thank you for your support and for making The Kitchen Sync such a success. I hope you’re having a very happy Thanksgiving holiday. Tech Terms Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) — A set of security standards that are designed to ensure that all organizations that accept, process, store, or transmi…